I have to say, as much as I hate making my mind up about things before they air, as soon as I saw the still frame from the "Ric Flair Road Rage amateur footage," I pretty much lowered by expectations for the rest of the night.

Hi, Shelton Benjamin's actress mamma! Could you please hold the door open for Charlie Haas on your way out? Thanks!

Man, it must really be rewarding to be the WWE Champion and have 17,896 people shit all over you during your main event match.

On the one hand, it sure seems to be a problem to have your supposed "face" champion being shit upon. But then again, the main event had an insane amount of heat, and an awful lot of people seem to want to see Cena get his ass kicked. That does spell money. The question is, do you have your writers actually try to make him a heel? Or do you just stay the course and let the writers continue to unintentionally make Cena a heel, since that seems to be working so well?

Kane/Michaels was okay. I'm still not sure what to make of this Shawn/Vince feud....Man, I thoughte Helms would bring out 3 Minute Warning to crush Lawler. Instead, we get him wrestling at a PPV again....That women's match and resulting PPV match seemed like a really thrown together at the last minute type thing....

All those "Oh man, I bet Flair put the guy in the figure four!" jokes after the incident all of a sudden aren't that funny anymore after watching a video of it actually being done (with Edge as Flair, of course)....

Shelton/Masters was serviceable, although there were a few botched spots....The Big Show/Triple H segment left a nice visual for fans going into their PPV match....Somehow, I thought Shelton's mama would be less mean....The best thing about the ME was the crowd heat.

I forgot today was Monday, so I didn't even remember to watch the show until the last five minutes or so-- I was watching the special edition DVD of Dogma. And from what CRZ tells me, I didn't miss much, so...

Why would Shelton Benjamin's mom refer to him as "Shelton Benjamin"? And do all mothers have access to their wrestler child's lockerroom? And why couldn't it have been Charlie Haas? Would that make too much sense?

Tell me that Shawn Michaels vs. Vince McMahon isn't on tap for Wrestlemania. And speaking of Wrestlemania, it's been a few years since we went into January having absolutely no idea what the 'Mania main event(s) is going to be. I don't see too many compelling matchups that haven't been done before, but maybe they'll surprise me.

Why the hell would they book Gregory Helms to face Jerry Lawler? What good can come of that?

Nice to see creative has gone cutting edge with Shelton by getting ideas from new programming like Good Times and What's Happening? Has Shelton won a match since those shows went into TV Land's rotation and creative discovered it as new programming?Cena has become the face version of Trip from his Reign of Terror: Even when he somehow loses a non-title match, at the end he gets in the last shot. Does Vince realize that as each calendar year changes, it means reenacting 1998 becomes even older?Has anyone ever seen Chris Masters and Shawn Stasiak at the same time? And, if Chris Masters as champ wasn't such a horrible thought, it would almost be worth it to see if eke would go postal.2 Women's matches and 2 matches featuring guys who broke in almost 35 years ago needed to fill a stand-alone PPV. That says something about the lack of developing roster depth.

Why do they keep doing this with Angle? Angle's a great heel without this bullshit. It's just Cena is a failure as a face champion.

I just think there's a problem with WWE trying to show support for the troops and at the same time having Angle deride them. Its not necessary. Does WWE want another Muhammed Hassan situation that badly?

Putting a wrestler against Lawler on PPV is bad luck. Look what happened with Tazz and Hassan.

Those fans seemed to be the ones that had zero tolerance for crap. WWE is out of touch with EVERYBODY. People are laughing along with HHH because half the time Show and Kane are heels. The rest of the time he is calling HHH a bully then going to Smackdown to bully Rey Rey.

The fans are shitting on Masters and Carlito the more they get shoved down their throat. Of course, Cena is a much worse example of that and you heard how he was treated.

They need to remember that when Slaughter was an Iraqi sympathizer half the country wasn't against the war. The 24-35 male demo isn't going to like Cena over Angle if Kurt came out in a Nazi uniform. And I think it's pretty clear that people are tired of the homo penis joke rap off.

Originally posted by The Vile1Putting a wrestler against Lawler on PPV is bad luck. Look what happened with Tazz and Hassan.

I dont know, him and Bret Hart did pretty good on PPV.

Lawler just about single handedly made the original ECW vs WWF fued by invading the arena. He can sell an angle, he can still somewhat go in the ring (more so than Flair) and he can be believable when he has to be.

I mean there are probably better matchups that COULD be made, but it isnt like this is going to be total crap.

The more I see of Micky James, the more I like her.

I thought Edge did a pretty dead on impression of Flair.

The ME showed what is wrong with the WWE, they want so badly for people to cheer Cena, but he still cant carry a match to save his hide. The crowd is leaning more and more to making Cena a heel, from thier booing. A few short weeks ago it was 50/50. I doubt he got 20% of the face pop tonite. Sad that they keep shoving him when nobody seems to want him. He's entering X-pac territory.

Originally posted by JacksonThose fans seemed to be the ones that had zero tolerance for crap. WWE is out of touch with EVERYBODY. People are laughing along with HHH because half the time Show and Kane are heels. The rest of the time he is calling HHH a bully then going to Smackdown to bully Rey Rey.

The fans are shitting on Masters and Carlito the more they get shoved down their throat. Of course, Cena is a much worse example of that and you heard how he was treated.

They need to remember that when Slaughter was an Iraqi sympathizer half the country wasn't against the war. The 24-35 male demo isn't going to like Cena over Angle if Kurt came out in a Nazi uniform. And I think it's pretty clear that people are tired of the homo penis joke rap off.

I hope somebody was paying attention to that crowd tonight.

Contrast, for a moment, Dave Batista & John Cena. Dave Batista's been consistently booked since he debuted in the WWE as a no-nonsense asskicker. Heck, DEACON BATISTA was even booked like that, albeit much weaker. The reason fans still seem to buy Batista as a top guy is that he's always been treated with a modicum of respect. Meanwhile Cena went from "blue-chipper" to "headstrong rookie" to "angry rapping guy" to "man of the people".

I was at the show tonight, and despite anything and everything I had a great time...maybe the beer helped, I'm not sure. Anywho...the Cena-hate was apparent before even the dark matches as the "Cena-sucks" chants bounded out over the crowd. Even so, the crowd was hot from the beginning, then kind of dulled through the middle, which is probably par for course. Cena/Angle was very loud. I'd put it at 50/50, maybe a little edge for Angle. Afterwards, when a lot of people had left, Vince comes out and asks "you think it's over?" to which my Triple-H loving little tail walks myself down closer to the ring only to see, yep, HHH come out to join in the festivities for a title shot. Show comes out and chases him off and Cena pinned Angle. The remaining crowd, in my opinion, got good shit. The rest got the beat on traffic in the rain. Me = very happy. No matter how much it sucks, it still brings the goodness live...and I'm still drinking and planning on some more...

Originally posted by The Vile1I turned RAW off after Angle said "Screw the troops!"

Why do they keep doing this with Angle? Angle's a great heel without this bullshit. It's just Cena is a failure as a face champion.

Well, isn't all you internet fans who keep cheering the decent heels and pushing for them to become face and then abandon them because that person has become stale?

-Hogan (the nWo in WWE angle might have failed regardless, but it may have had a better chance if people had just booed like they were supposed to instead of cheering the the key heel to the whole situation)-Cena-Orton-Batista (though he's still popular, he doesn't have anywhere near as much momentum as before)

Yea, Cena sucks, but it doesn't help matters any when everyone is cheering the the person they are supposed to be booing.

Oops, I forgot...we're all marks!

I'm not saying you should just sit back and clap for everything that is fed to you, but when you're an older fan and know the nature of pro wrestling, why can't you just enjoy watching without over-analyzing every character and detail?

If you keep cheering the heels, you'll never, ever be able to build a credible heel/face dynamic for any match-up unless you're a wrestler with an already mythos (i.e. Shawn Michaels)

And yet even though they've made Angle into this disgusting discount Muhammed Hassan the fans are STILL cheering for Angle over Cena. So I'm not quite sure what you are talking about.

I preferred it when Angle was trying to be the picture of morality and was about the 3 I's. There was never any ATTEMPTED RAPE, BEASTIAL SEX, OR SCREW THE TROOPS. This is not character growth or development, its just wrong. And I wonder, what happened to the Angle from the Rise and Fall of ECW who didn't even want to be associated with them because of their crucifixion deal?